Sheikh Hasina tells AP she will return to Bangladesh in December despite her death sentence
Former prime minister Sheikh Hasina, ousted in Bangladesh's 2024 mass uprising and living in exile in India, has told the Associated Press that she remains committed to returning to Bangladesh next month, despite the death sentence a Bangladeshi special tribunal handed her in 2025 over her government's deadly crackdown on protesters. 'If death is my destiny, I would rather die on the soil of my own country, among my own people,' she said in answers by email to questions submitted last week. 'So, I will return to Bangladesh. That decision has not changed.' She did not say how she would travel. Bangladesh's state minister for foreign affairs, Humaiun Kobir, said on Thursday that no passport or travel pass will be issued to her and that any return must come through the two countries' extradition treaty: 'We are demanding her handover.' Whether Hasina returns, and what happens if she does, are not yet known — what is verified here is that she said she will.
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Key points
- Hasina to AP, in her own words: 'I will return to Bangladesh. That decision has not changed' — knowing, she says, she may be arrested, imprisoned, tortured or killed.
- She faces a death sentence handed down in absentia in 2025 by a Bangladeshi tribunal over the 2024 crackdown; she denies wrongdoing and rejects the verdict and the tribunal.
- Dhaka's state minister Humaiun Kobir: no passport or travel pass will be issued; Bangladesh demands her handover under the extradition treaty with India.
- She has not said how she would travel, and whether she returns at all is not yet known.
What happened
Hasina, prime minister from 2009 to 2024, fled to India in August 2024 as a student-led mass uprising ended her rule. An interim administration under Muhammad Yunus ran the country for 18 months; in February 2026 Tarique Rahman swept to power in a landslide election her Awami League was barred from contesting. The party remains banned, with senior leaders arrested or in exile — the setting in which a December return, if it happened, would land.
Claim by claim
Why this label: Verified as the principal's own words under the principal's-own-words rule: Hasina's email answers to AP are quoted directly and carried in agreement by AP's syndications read in this run. That she said this is verified; whether she returns is a separate, future claim and sits in the don't-know list — nothing on this page states that a return will happen.
On the ladder: a claim earns Verified from primary evidence, or from two independent sources that do not copy each other.
Why this label: Verified from AP's report read in full in this run: the tribunal's ruling and sentence are stated as the tribunal's ruling — a court's verdict, reported as such — and the UN's nearly-1,400 figure is attributed to the UN report. Hasina's denial and her rejection of the tribunal are her stated positions, carried as such. This page makes no finding of its own on her responsibility for the crackdown.
On the ladder: a claim earns Verified from primary evidence, or from two independent sources that do not copy each other.
Why this label: Verified as the government's stated position: Kobir's remarks were made to journalists at Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport and are reported in full by The Business Standard (read in this run); his characterisation of Hasina is his language, quoted as his position, not adopted by this page. The Press Wing's non-response is from AP's report — recorded here so the government's side is not silently absent: its on-record position in this run is Kobir's.
On the ladder: a claim earns Verified from primary evidence, or from two independent sources that do not copy each other.
Show all claims (1 more)
Why this label: Carried as Not yet verified: the 20,000 figure is Hasina's allegation in her AP answers (AP issued a correction clarifying the figure she alleged), and no independent count supporting it appears in the reporting read. It is published because it is part of what she said — labelled as her allegation, never as a toll this page has checked.
On the ladder: the evidence so far sits low — early, single or social sources. We publish the claim as a claim, never as fact.
What we know / what we don't know yet
What we know
- That Hasina told AP she will return in December, in her own emailed words — verified as her statement under the principal's-own-words rule.
- The tribunal's 2025 death sentence and her rejection of it, and Dhaka's on-record position (Kobir, Thursday) that she must be handed over under the extradition treaty, not issued a passport.
What we don't know yet
- Whether she actually returns in December, and if so how — she disclosed no travel method, and India, which has not handed her over, has given no timeframe on the extradition request (its high commissioner said in October the legal process is ongoing).
- What would happen on arrival — arrest is the outcome she herself names as likely; no Bangladeshi authority has stated an arrival plan in the reporting read.
- Her allegation that 20,000 party members have been killed since August 2024 — her figure, unverified by any independent count in the reporting read.
Why it matters
A former prime minister under sentence of death announcing she will fly home to face it is a direct challenge to the government that replaced her — and to India, which must decide whether its guest leaves as a traveller or as an extradition. If she returns, Bangladesh's post-uprising settlement faces its hardest test; if she does not, her announcement still reopens the question her exile was meant to close: whether the Awami League era is over.
Background
Show the background timeline (4)
A student-led mass uprising forces Hasina from power; she flees to India and has remained there since.
A Bangladeshi special tribunal sentences her to death in absentia for crimes against humanity over the 2024 crackdown; she rejects the verdict.
Tarique Rahman wins a landslide election held under the interim administration; the Awami League was barred from contesting.
Hasina first announces she intends to return in December; on Wednesday she tells AP that decision has not changed.
Update history
No silent edits. Every change is written here, with its time.
- Latest
Published as a brief from queue MANUAL 1766 (Sheikh Hasina tells AP she will return in December; held over from the 17:50 pass, which recorded 'do not let it age out'). Basis: AP's email interview read in full in this run, plus The Business Standard's report of Humaiun Kobir's remarks, read in full. JUDGE AUDIT: (1) headline, slug, SEO title and summary state the same outcome — she SAYS she will return; none of them states that a return will happen. (2) Her words are Verified as a principal's own statement; the tribunal sentence is carried as the tribunal's ruling with her denial; her 20,000-killed allegation is Not yet verified. (5) The other side is present on the record — Kobir's extradition position — and the Press Wing's non-response to AP is recorded, not silently absent. (6) Photo is Hasina, labelled a file photo; no official video was oEmbed-verified, so none is attached. Translations: headline, summary and take labels in all 13 non-English languages at publish; this story carries no FR/AR full text, so no full-text rebuild arose.